unit 12 lesson 82

Semi-Colons are used in place of the conjunctions and, or, but to connect clauses in a compound sentence

For example instead of saying, "Bob drove to the truck, and the cow escaped."

You could say "Bob drove to the truck; the cow escaped."

These can also take the place of "because" in a complex sentence

Instead of saying, "The phone was broken because it was dropped."

You could say, "The phone was broken; it was dropped."

Commas cannot connect two clauses by itself without the help of a conjunction and, but, or

This is incorrect: "Bob went to the store, it was closed."

Correct: "Bob went to the store, but it was closed."

Colons (:) are used before an item or series of items introduced by a statement

For example: Bob wanted the following shoes: Nike Air forces, Jordans, and Adidas

Dashes (-) are sort of used like commas, but they are stronger, and emphasize the interruption between words more

Instead of saying, "The criminal, very athletic and strong, evaded the cops."

You could say, 'The criminal - very athletic and strong - evaded the cops

The 2nd sentence is much more forceful

Use either a dash or a semicolon before the words for example when the sentence before it is a complete statement

For example, "Bob hated big items - for example, buildings."